


Brave New World

by Morgana



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-01
Updated: 2010-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 16:36:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morgana/pseuds/Morgana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Chosen, Xander's left to wonder where he really fits in</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brave New World

His mom used to have a needlepoint hanging on the living room wall that she'd made back when she was in high school: _Great minds have purposes, little minds have -_ but he didn't remember what little minds had, and it was starting to bother him. He could probably ask Giles, since it seemed like one of the things the Watcher would know, but then he'd probably ask why he wanted to know, and that would mean admitting that he was a little mind, since he no longer had a purpose.

Not that anybody had said anything quite so blatant, but Xander could read between the lines. Buffy might not be the sole Slayer any longer, but she was still the original, and the one and only Buffy. Willow was the witchy power, probably as close as any human could come to being a deity incarnate, and second in command at the Council, and Giles... the G-man was the new head of the Watcher's Council, surrounded by all the books and eager little tweedy mini-Gileses he could ever want. They assumed Dawn was still the Key, although truthfully nobody really wanted to do the research and tests needed to find out. And Xander?

Well, he wasn't a carpenter anymore, that was for sure. The contract work he'd really loved required two good hands and two good eyes, neither of which he could truthfully claim to have. He didn't have the knowledge that Giles did, couldn't train like Faith and Buffy, and the only thing he might be able to teach was how to spot the freshest donuts at the bakery. He didn't have to be the surrogate father, and Dawn was too old to need or want a big brother - not that he'd have been her first pick even if she wasn't. He didn't have a bowling night or friends to bowl with, couldn't hold his own in a fight against a kitten now, and thanks to some world-class pouting from Buffy and a major hissy fit from Dawn, he wasn't a Harris anymore, either, although he counted that as a good thing.

They'd all had their names changed after Sunnydale. Maybe it was facing the ultimate evil or maybe it was just growing up, but somewhere along the line, they'd decided to legalize what they'd all truly known for years, and now everyone was a Summers. Even Anya and Spike, according to their headstones outside the new Council headquarters, and wasn't that something he really didn't care to think about, his and Buffy's exes side by side, even if they were just empty markers to honor the ones they'd lost.

But at least they had a place - they were the fallen, the martyrs, the ones held up in stories for the younger group to revere and learn from. On those night that he'd had a little too much to drink, Xander sometimes wondered what place they'd have had if they'd made it out. Anya would've found her way, he knew that. She'd have bullied Giles into letting her handle the Council's stock portfolio, or maybe set up another Magic Box and become Europe's top magical supplier, but she'd have come out on top; she always had.

Spike, on the other hand, might sympathize with his current predicament. The vampire had been no stranger to being the one on the outside of the group, and from some things Buffy had said, he suspected that part dated back to his human life. But somehow Spike had managed to make that whole outsider thing his own, like James Dean, with the same cool disdain for what everybody else thought. He'd never seemed lost for very long - even when the chip and soul turned his life upside down, he'd still gotten back up and found a new thing to do. Definitely not like Xander, who didn't think he'd ever find his footing again.

It really was a brave new world that they'd created, one full of Slayers and witches, where the monsters in the dark now had something to fear beyond just one girl. They were an army now, a swift, efficient fighting unit - and Xander was still the guy that kept them supplied with snacks. Sometimes he thought he should try making his own sampler, but he'd have to put something like _Great minds have purposes, little minds have donuts_, or something equally as stupid. And that really didn't seem like a such a good thing to put on a wall - even if it was true.


End file.
